PC2 – CamLink

Description

PC2-CamLink frame grabber is ideal for cost-sensitive applications. Compatible with one monochrome area or linescan Base Camera Link™ camera, the

PC2-Camlink is a snap to interface to your vision system, thanks to the Camera Link standard and DALSA’s innovative visual status LED. When you

connect the camera cable and external triggers, the PC2-CamLink’s bracket-mounted visual status LEDs provide an immediate visual indication that all

signals are present and active. To further simplify setup, the PC2-Camlink provides direct power (5V or 12V) to your camera.

The PC2-CamLink has been engineered within DALSA’s exactingTrigger-to-Imaging Reliability technology framework to leveragehardware and software innovations, like time stamping, eventtracking, and false trigger rejection, to control, monitor, and correctthe

image acquisition process fro m the time an external triggerevent occurs to the moment the data is sent to the PCI bus.within DALSA’s exacting Trigger- to- Imaging

Reliabilitytechnology framework to control and monitor the entire image acquisition sequence.

At the heart of the PC2-CamLink’s Trigger-to-Image Reliability is the Acquisition Control Unit (ACU), which controls the image acquisition sequence

from the time an external trigger even t occurs to the time the video data is sent into the PCI bus. The ACU ensures that data is delivered flawlessly to the host

buffers, and will also signal the application if a problem prevents a complete image from being transferred. The ACU ensure s efficient, repeatable and accurate image

capture.

The trigger controller supervises all trigger inputs coming into the PC2-CamLink (including the shaft encoder) and makes certain they are valid before

forwarding them to the ACU. A debouncer ensures that small glitches are not mistakenly detected as valid triggers. Opto-coupled trigger inputs supporting 24V are

available to electrically decouple the board from the trigger signal. A dual phase shaft encoder is integrated into the trigger controller to ensure accurate images

for processing in linescan applications

The PC2-CamLink is designed to facilitate ease-of- use and features visual status LEDs to simplify system installation and setup on the factory floor.

A status indicator LED provides visual feedback when the correct camera connection is ma de and when an image grab is in progress to further speed the diagnostic

process. In addition, a second LED shows when a valid external trigger is detected. These visual indicators allow developers to instantly recognize if cabling has been

correctly set up.

The PC2-CamLink supports the following channel scanning topology: 1-channel raster, 2-channel interleave pixels, 2-channel interlines, and 2-channel

half-line segmented. Pixel depths up to 1 6- bit a re also supported. Pixels can optionally be truncated to 8-bit to ease camera setup an d lo w e r PCI

bandwidth.

The parallel I/O controller offers a convenient way to interface the PC2-CamLink to other controllers within the ma chine vision system. It features 8

inputs, a strobe in put (used to latch the 8 in put data), 8 outputs, and a strobe out (used to latch the 8 output data a t the receive r). The PC2-

CamLink also has one dedicated interrupt input wit programmable polarity, and two fused 5V output pins (500mA – power off reset). All I/O pins are connector

pin compatible with other PC2 series boards.

Transfers to the host memory a re performed via the PCI bus. The PC2-CamLink is 5V and 3.3V PCI compliant. The hardware scattergather engine requires

minimal CPU involvement as it automatically retrieves each descriptor representing the noncontiguous host memory. The PC2-CamLink performs transfers

to the host memory or to a display. D ire ct transfers for display of monochrome image s to a YCrCb overlay are supported in the hardware by adding neutral chrominance

to the pixel data. This minimizes the amount of DirectDraw ®work the CP U must perform.

PC2-CamLink is fully supported by DALSA’s Sapera™ LT and Imaging Foundation Class™ (IFC) software development libraries enabling PC2- Camlink

application to be develop ed under Windows NT®, Wind ows®2 000, and Windows® XP. Sape ra LT allows users to develop applications with C language DLLs, C ® classes or

Active X® controls for Microsoft® Visual C/C ®6.0 (or higher) or Visual Basic®6.0 (or higher) development platforms. Sapera LT’s advanced image acquisition and

control functions are an integral part of DALSA’s stringent Trigger-to-Image Reliability technology frame work. Sa pe ra LT offers users a single API across DALSA’s

current and future hardware platform, to deliver a comprehensive feature set including program portability, versatile camera controls, flexible display functionality

and management, and easy to use application development wizards.
For image processing and analysis DALSA offers Sape ra Processing. Fully integrated with Sapera

LT functionality, Sapera Processing is a dynamic Windows – based comprehensive programming library. Hardware independent and designed to simplify vision application

development, Sapera Processing isbased on a set SIMD Extensions), and SSE2 to meet the challenging operational requirements of today’s imaging systems. Scalable in

design, Sapera Processing offers a comprehensive set of optimized tools, (as a suite o standalone) including image processing, search (pattern recognition), OCR,

barcode decoding, an blob analysis. Sapera LT and Sapera Processing combine seamlessly to d e liver a powerful and easy to u se development resource for advanced image

acquisition, processing, and analysis.